PSK-31 - Shoestring Style

PSK-31 is a mode that I find curiously interesting, but don't know why.

True, you sit there, largely pressing macro QSO function buttons, as does everyone else.  But it is an interesting way to communicate when you feel a bit less chatty, or shouting your callsign down the mic at 3am might just wake the kids up.

How to do PSK-31 if you have the money - and a rig with the right ports.

I wanted to have a go at this mode, but had no interface.  Worse, and as usual, I couldn't find any sense on the internet as to what interface might be available for my elderly TS-50 that - shock!  horror!  has no data port.

My colleagues in the US, bless them, applied standard SAGA generation thinking and advised me to 'purchase a newer rig, then buy a Connect-o-Tron 5000' and set the jumpers to stun.'

Hmm.  Fine if you've a public sector pension, three houses and twelve 15L cars.

But where there's no money, there's a way.  I chose to think about it, helped along by the ever-helpful video meister, Randy, K7AGE.  Here's Randy looking, as ever, a bit rabbit-in-headlights:



See, Randy's good at making things simple.  He does go on to mention, in a very democratic way, the various interfaces.  That's where I lose interest, as these simple circuits cost a lot of money, typically need a lot of twiddling before they work, and then seem not to work very well.

So, having understood how it all fits together, here is my Super-Connect-o-Tron-6000 computer to Kenwood TS-50 interface:

My precisely zero-cost PSK-31 interface.  You've probably got one, too...

Now, I can hear the purist amateur radio lifestyler out there shouting 'ha ha ha, but what about your levels, your ALC?'

Well, first you pick a quiet section of the PSK part of the band, use the thing on your shoulders to set the output levels to a pretty low figure - I chose S3 to start with on the RF meter of the rig - and invite comments on the IMD level.  Nobody complained, but eventually, I found I could go down to zero S-bars, but  showing, in my case, about 5-7W out on the ATU meter) without any problems, this equating roughly to an IMD of -20 to -30dB.

PSK-31.  All for zero dollars!

True, you have to keep an eye on the output meters and adjust the position of the mic relative to the PC's speaker, but it does work and by the end of the first day, my log book was full of successful PSK-31 contacts and no complaints.

In the end, I don't prefer PSK-31 over SSB.  It's just something else to play with and see where the signal goes.  It's too impersonal for my liking, but I will take part from time to time, happy in the sure knowledge that I can do it with no problem to others - and without having spent a single penny!

I wonder when the magazines will run an article on PSK-31 for no money?  No time soon, if their advertising concerns have anything to say about it!

Meanwhile, here's a particularly Swedish take, showing a blatant (but very healthy) disregard for taking ham radio too seriously, on shoestring PSK-31: